Editorial: Gov. Deval Patrick's taxing smorgasbord

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says he wants private organizations to work with state government in reducing youth violence.Associated Press

We’re still processing Gov. Patrick’s from his state of the state speech last week. It was an aggressive gambit: The governor positioned his tax request as if the citizens of the commonwealth would be foolish not to “invest” more in government services. Pay up now or lose out later, he basically said. The cost for not investing? Horrible neglect that leads to a second-rate commonwealth.

Such severity won’t play in Massachusetts in 2013. The governor overreached last week, for he failed to calibrate how the average Bay State resident casts a jaundiced eye toward the bloated and ever-growing costs of running state government.

Patrick neglected to explain why the already considerable investment in state government is not getting the job done. By the end of this fiscal year in late June, the state will have collected about $21.5 billion from taxes, a record surpassing the heyday of 2007-2008. Nor did the governor explain why a full percentage point increase in the income tax, an oddly gratuitous reduction in the sales tax, and a wholesale obliteration of some common-sense income tax deductions was the most sensible path to raising more revenue. There’s nothing progressive about removing a dependent-child deduction from a poor or middle-class family.

Patrick has made a big revenue play at a time when state government finances aren’t exactly ship-shape. Embedded costs are set up to expand faster than the state’s economy can support — a structural deficit of roughly $500 million. Health care costs, in particular, are eating up extra revenue. And the governor, despite trumpeting a record of fiscal prudence and reform, hasn’t done nearly enough to abate those costs. Unfunded pension and health care liabilities loom large.

If the governor’s strategy was to float an outrageous proposal so that House Speaker Bob DeLeo and Senate President Terry Murray could follow up and look reasonable with a modest plan that addresses some core needs, including some dedicated funding to the state’s transportation infrastructure, then perhaps he succeeded in his mission. Almost every imaginable revenue source now is on the table, save the sales tax.

Patrick changed the conversation. Now it’s all about revenue — how much and from where. We just hope someone on Beacon Hill bothers to tell us why our earlier taxpayer investments aren’t paying enough dividends.